California’s beaches are threatened by sea level rise. By 2100, up to 67 percent of California's iconic beaches are expected to disappear entirely. But the impacts of these losses will not be distributed evenly among California’s diverse population. Sustaining beaches and equitable access will require coordinated efforts among stakeholders, as well as the knowledge of how resilient each beach is and how their management affects access, use, environmental justice and economic value.
This project, funded by California Sea Grant and the California State University Council on Ocean Affairs, Science and Technology (COAST), will assess how marginalized communities’ access to California’s shoreline will be impacted by rising seas. Specifically, the team will collect observational data on beaches and distribute surveys to beachgoers. Combined with a regional survey of households and focus group interviews in counties of interest, the data will be analyzed to explore what factors enable and discourage beach access and use. This data will illuminate what inequities exist today to beach access for different demographic groups and underserved communities. This social scientific data will be combined with an existing database on beach geomorphology and ecology. The result will be a beach access assessment and index, which incorporates social inequities and access barriers. This index will help officials manage beaches now and in the future to improve access for everyone.